Well the minutes are ticking down in this timezone, and as is tradition we see out 2013 with the JC Leyendecker Saturday Evening Post cover from 100 years ago. While 2013 wasn’t as profoundly crappy a year as 2012, it had its…challenges. But The Beat sailed on through. And you all made it here. Thanks for going on the trip.

First off, a huge huge thanks to Steve Morris, Todd Allen, Zainab Akhtar, Laura Sneddon, Henry Barajas, Jeff Trexler, Dre Grigoripol, Jessica Lee, Serhend Sirkecioglu, Amy Chu, Bruce Lidl, Jeffrey Gustafson, Brett Schenker, Hannah Means-Shannon, Todd Alcott, Synsidar and the one and only Torsten for all the great writing that they contributed to the Beat in 2013. There was a plethora of great comics coming out this year, and I hope the Beatniks helped people find more of them.

A huge thank you to the ground crew as always, although crazy travel meant not as much time with them: Amy, Zena, Elim, Charlene, Sara, Nisha, Kai Ming, Josh, Mike, Charles, Jimmy and Alex, the More to Come gang of Calvin and Kate, Matt at PW, Ryan at Modiv. who is the Scotty of the Beat keeping the databases going when I can’t.

A big bow to the great sponsors who made this site possible: Comic-Con International, Valiant, NBM, Papercutz, Dynamite and Top Shelf. PLEASE CHECK OUT THESE FINE PUBLISHERS.

AN ENORMOUS HAT TIP to the may comics professional in every level of the business who took time to be interviewed, share art, comment, give us news and in general support The Beat and its aims. Too many to name to count, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

And of course, all my love to Ben, Charlie and Lucy.

Most of all thank YOU for coming here, being cool (most of the time) and caring about comics. I couldn’t do it without you. 2014 will be The Beat’s 10th Anniversary, and there wall be all kinds of special stuff that will make it a year to remember. In the meantime, to everyone out there, have a safe, happy New Year and here’s to kicking every kind of ass in 2014.

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.